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New legislation citing national security calls for immediate dismantling of WiFi
September 8th, 2014
Leo Byrne
North Korean authorities have declared that foreign embassies, officials and international NGOs working in country can no longer use WiFi to connect to the internet, citing interests of national security.
Satellite internet access, which allows for foreigners to send information and data at almost no risk of interception from local authorities, will only be possible after users “seek license,” from authorities, a decree document obtained by NK News said.
The new rules, which were issued on August 13, come from the North Korean State Radio Regulatory Department and demand such equipment must be immediately dismantled. Anyone who continues to illegally use WiFi could be fined up to 1,500,000 KPW ($11,326.55 U.S.), the decree explains.
“Signals of regional wireless network, installed and being used without licence, produce some effect upon our surroundings…Therefore, it is kindly notified that the regional wireless network is abolished here,” a notification from the regulatory department obtained by NK News said.
The order follows a story reported by The Diplomat in August, which claimed that unprotected wireless networks originating from embassies were fueling price increases in neighboring buildings as a result of local citizens wishing to access the internet.
“It could be that the reports of WiFi signals from embassies are true, in which case the embassies only have themselves to blame, or … the (Diplomat) report highlighted to the DPRK government that this might happen, so they changed the rules,” Martyn Williams, author of North Korea Tech website told NK News.
The decree does seem to allow for some flexibility, however, hinting that wireless networks could be reactivated pending a “consultation” with the Radio Regulatory Department. It does not though give any indication of what criteria have to be met in order to do so.
“What’s interesting is that they want to inspect networks before issuing licenses but the criteria is unclear. They might just want encryption, or they might want more,” Williams said, noting that any country can restrict the use of its airwaves as it wishes.
The development comes after Reuters reported last week that foreign owners of KoryoLink SIM cards – some of which can access the internet via 3G – were to be more tightly controlled, with 3G service to be active only during the precise times they would be in country.
That news suggested some foreign owners may have left their SIM cards behind for local North Korean citizens to use while out of the country.
“It’s also interesting to note that it comes days after the Koryolink SIM card loophole was closed. Clearly, the Internet is still a big worry for the government,” said Williams.
North Korea had been making access to the internet easier for foreign long-term residents and short-term visitors in recent years, but the new developments appear to signify that trend may be reversing.
The full message from the State Radio Regulatory Department obtained by NK News appears below:
All the Diplomatic Missions and International Organizations to
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
The State Radio Regulatory Department, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, presents its compliments to all the Diplomatic Missions and International Organizations to the DPRK and has the honour to inform that the signals of regional wireless network, installed and being used without licence, produce some effect upon our surroundings.
Therefore, it is kindly notified that the regional wireless network is abolished here according to Article 18, Chapter 3 of the Law on Radio Regulation, and that the Missions, who would like to use the regional wireless network in future, should seek a consultation with the State Radio Regulatory Department.
It would be appreciated if the Missions could positively co-operate in the current measures taken for the security of the DPRK.
The State Radio Regulatory Department, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, avails itself of this opportunity to renew to all the Diplomatic Missions and International Organizations to the DPRK the assurances of its highest consideration.
The State Radio
Regulatory
Department,
Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea
Pyongyang
August 13,
2014
Appendix
Article 18, Chapter 3 of the DPRK Law on Radio Regulation; The institution, enterprise, organization and citizen who would like to form or use the wireless communication network and satellite communication network here should seek the licence from the Radio Regulatory body.
Article 61, Chapter 4 of the enforcement regulations for the DPRK Law on Radio Regulation; In case of having violated this rules and regulations relative to the application of the Law on Radio Regulation, a fine amounting up to 1,500,000 Wons will be imposed , or such punishment as interrupting the operation or forfeiting the equipment will be inflicted according to the circumstances.
At 2.4m subscribers, North Korean cell phone uptake decreases
Subscriptions to North Korea's Koryolink are slowing according to data from Orascom
September 8th, 2014
Hamish Macdonald
The rate of subscriptions to North Korea’s 3G cell network is in decline despite reaching the 2.4 million user mark, according to figures from Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT).
The subscription figures provided by OTMT, which owns 75% of North Korea’s only 3G carrier Koryolink, indicate that despite reaching a new milestone in user numbers, the rate of subscriptions compared to previous years is declining.
“The figure represents a significant slowdown in growth in the last year over the previous year and points to the first big spurt in subscriptions being over,” Martyn Williams, author of North Korea Tech blog said on his site Monday.
“The carrier might have to start working harder to continue attracting new users,” Williams added.
Koryolink, which launched in December 2008, is a joint venture between Egyptian owned OTMT and the state owned Korea Post & Telecoms Corporation (KPTC).
According to OTMT Koryolink’s network reached more than 75% of North Korea population of 25 million by June 2011.
Despite cell phone usage becoming a more common site among DPRK citizens, access to phones remains a privilege largely reserved for more affluent North Koreans.
North Korea has exclusive rights to sell the handsets, which they do at a high mark-up, sometimes up to three times the retail price of similar phones in China.
This monopoly on the sale of cell technology and its 25% stake in Koryolink is a source of hard cash for the government, but means that further subscriptions to the service may be limited, unless the costs of owning and operating a cell device declines.
Despite there being over 2 million cell phone users in North Korea, the ability to use the devices to their full potential is also limited.
Apart from foreigners and a few selected elites, Koryolink users are also restricted from accessing the internet or making international calls.
Top DPRK diplomatic post in Stockholm vacant since last holder purged in December
September 10th, 2014
John G. Grisafi
North Korea has appointed a new ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden, Kang Yong Dok (강용덕), the Korean Central News Agency reported Sunday.
This appointment fills a diplomatic post which had been vacant since December of last year, when the previous holder, Pak Kwang Chol, was recalled to Pyongyang. Pak was reportedly a close aide to Kim Jong Un’s late uncle, Jang Song Taek, and his recall was part of the purge of Jang and his associates. Pak was likely imprisoned or, perhaps, even executed.
Nothing is publicly known yet about Kang. This appointment marks his first mention in North Korean state media.
The North Korean ambassador to Sweden typically also serves as non-resident ambassador to several other countries including Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania and Latvia. These appointments are typically made separately and are not always tied together, though.
Sweden plays an important role in North Korea’s relations with the rest of the world, largely due to its reputation as a neutral nation. The Swedish embassy often acts on behalf of the interests of countries which don’t have formal relations with Pyongyang, such as the United States and otherwise acts as a neutral mediator. This past May, the Swedish capital of Stockholm served as the neutral venue for talks between North Korea and Japan.
Additionally, Sweden, along with Switzerland and formerly Poland and Czechoslovakia (before its split) serves as a member of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission. Established by the Korean Armistice Agreement of 1953, the NNSC is composed of military officials from nations that did not participate in the Korean War. The NNSC serves in the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone where it conducts inspections, ensures compliance with the armistice in the JSA, and otherwise helps to facilitate peaceful interactions between the two sides.
There are increasing signs that the immediate family of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are consolidating their positions in the regime, amid hints that his sister Yeo-jong has been promoted to a senior post.
Kim Yeo-jong
The official [North] Korean Central News Agency on Thursday reported that the Kim Jong-un, his wife Ri Sol-ju and Kim Yeo-jong, watched a performance in Pyongyang on Wednesday.
In the status-conscious official media, the order of names speaks volumes, and KCNA named Yeo-jong ahead of Ri Jae-il, a senior official in charge of propaganda at the Workers Party. Previously she was named after Ri Jae-il.
That suggests Kim Yeo-jong, who has reportedly been in charge of an agency known as Room 38 under the Workers Party which manages the regime's coffers and businesses that earn foreign currency, has been promoted.
"Even Kim Jong-un was named after Army Chief Ri Yong-ho until he was designated successor to the throne," a source recalls. The source added that it is therefore highly likely the shift in the order of names signifies a promotion.
The fact that Ri Sol-ju was referred to as "comrade" rather than Kim's wife suggests that she also now holds an official position in the Workers Party.
Matthew Miller was sentenced to six years' hard labour. Photo: AP
North Korea's Supreme Court has sentenced a 24-year-old American man to six years of hard labour for entering the country illegally and trying to commit espionage.
At a trial that lasted about 90 minutes, the court said Matthew Miller, of Bakersfield, California, tore up his tourist visa at Pyongyang's airport upon arrival on April 10 and admitted to having the "wild ambition" of experiencing prison life so that he could secretly investigate North Korea's human rights situation.
Miller, who waived the right to a lawyer, was handcuffed and led away after his sentencing. The court ruled that it would not hear any appeals to its decision.
Earlier, it had been believed that Miller had sought asylum when he entered North Korea. During the trial, however, the prosecution argued that it was a ruse and that Miller also falsely claimed to have secret information about the US military in South Korea on his iPad and iPod.
Miller is one of three Americans now held in North Korea.
A trial is expected soon for Jeffrey Fowle, who entered the North as a tourist but was arrested in May for leaving a Bible at a provincial club. The third American, Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, is serving out a 15-year sentence for alleged "hostile acts".
A handcuffed Matthew Miller leaves after his trial at the Supreme Court. Photo: AP
All three have appealed to the US government to send a senior statesman to Pyongyang to intervene on their behalf.
During a brief interview in Pyongyang last week, Miller said he had written a letter to US President Barack Obama but had not received a reply.
Fowle, a 56-year-old equipment operator for the city of Moraine in Ohio, said his wife, a hair stylist from Russia, made a written appeal on his behalf to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said the Russian government responded that it was watching the situation.
The US has repeatedly offered to send its envoy for North Korean human rights issues, Robert King, to Pyongyang to seek the freedom of the detainees, but without success.
Former US president Bill Clinton went in 2009 to free a couple of jailed journalists. Jimmy Carter made the trip in 2010 to secure the release of Aijalon Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labour for illegally crossing into the country to do missionary work.
Miller's trial was held a day after North Korea published a 53,000-word rebuttal of the "distorted views" put forward in a report by a special UN human rights commission six months ago - which listed violations so severe as to amount to crimes against humanity.
The paper compiled by the North's Association for Human Rights Studies insisted that its people enjoyed "genuine human rights" and that "serious misunderstandings" had arisen because of fabricated reports originating from hostile nations.
In its report issued in February, the UN Commission on Inquiry into the North's rights record detailed a wide range of systemic abuses including murder, enslavement and torture.
American held in South Korea after trying to swim across Han River to rival North
Man in his 30s told investigators he wanted to meet leader Kim Jong-un
South Korean soldiers detained a US citizen who was apparently trying to swim across the river border into rival North Korea, the South's defence ministry said.
"A male American citizen was arrested last night while attempting to swim across the river," a ministry spokesman said yesterday, adding that he had been handed over to authorities.
According to the Yonhap news agency, the man told investigators that he had wanted to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Nobody at the US embassy in Seoul was immediately available for comment.
A government source, cited by Yonhap, said a border patrol had found the man, in his early 30s, lying exhausted on the south bank of the Han River where it forms part of the western section of the North-South frontier.
Attempted crossings of the heavily militarised border are rare and extremely dangerous.
Last September, a South Korean man who tried to swim to the North across the Imjin River section of the border was shot dead by South Korean troops manning a nearby guard post.
The latest incident carries echoes of the case of another American, Evan Hunziker, who swam across the Yalu River from China to North Korea in 1996.
Naked and apparently drunk, Hunziker purportedly did the swim as the result of a dare with a friend he had been drinking with.
He was arrested in the North on espionage charges and detained for three months before his release was secured during a visit to Pyongyang by the then New Mexico congressman, Bill Richardson.
North Korea currently has three American citizens in detention - Kenneth Bae, Matthew Miller and Jeffrey Fowle.
On Sunday, Miller was sentenced to six years of hard labour for "hostile" acts against the regime, four months after he was arrested for allegedly ripping up his tourist visa at immigration.
Bae, a Korean-American described by Pyongyang as a militant evangelist, was sentenced last year to 15 years of hard labour for seeking to topple the North's regime.
Evan Hunziker, right, shakes hands with then-US Representative Bill Richardson after being freed from North Korea in 1996. Hunziker decided to visit after a reported bout of drinking. Photo: AP
Seoul: One shouted about God's love as he crossed a frozen river, clutching a Bible. Another swam, drunk and naked. Several US soldiers dashed around landmines.
Time and again, Westerners over the years have slipped illegally into poor, deeply suspicious, fervently anti-American North Korea, even as it has become increasingly easy to enter legally as a tourist. It's incomprehensible to many, especially since tens of thousands of desperate North Koreans have crossed in the opposite direction, at great risk.
On Tuesday night, a US citizen apparently tried to swim across a river separating the Koreas, eager to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, local media reported. And on Sunday, a young American who entered as a tourist but then tore up his visa was sentenced to six years of hard labour on charges he illegally entered the country to commit espionage.
Sneaking into autocratic, cloistered North Korea has proven a strange and powerful temptation for some Americans.
Sometimes the spur is deep religious conviction. Sometimes it's discontent with America and a belief that things will be different in a country that can seem like its polar opposite. Quite often, analysts say, it's mental or personal problems - or simply a case of a person acting upon a very, very bad idea.
Whatever their reasons, Americans detained in North Korea, including three currently in custody, are major complications for Washington, which must decide whether to let a US citizen languish or to provide Pyongyang with a propaganda victory by sending a senior US envoy to negotiate a release.
In the Cold War, a handful of US soldiers, some of whom knew little about life in the North, fled across the Demilitarised Zone and later appeared in North Korean propaganda films.
Charles Robert Jenkins, of North Carolina, deserted his army post in South Korea in 1965. He was allowed to leave North Korea for Japan in 2004.
Other defector soldiers had problems in their military units or issues with family at home. One was reportedly lured north by a female North Korean agent.
In the decades after the war, some Americans harboured "glamorous notions of North Korea as a socialist paradise," said John Delury, an Asia expert at Yonsei University in Seoul. "But that's just not part of the mix any more. Even in the furthest fringes of American online culture, you don't find that notion."
Mental health issues have often played a part, Mr Delury said.
"It's seen as a forbidden country ... a place that's perceived in the American mind as being locked down," Mr Delury said. "To cross the border, in some ways, could be alluring" to people looking to break social rules.
Evan Hunziker had reportedly been drinking with a friend in 1996 when he decided to swim naked across the Yalu River between China and the North. Mr Hunziker, who was released after about three months, had drug, alcohol and legal problems. He was later found dead in Washington state in what was ruled a suicide.
Religion has provided a powerful impulse for some to cross.
North Korea officially guarantees freedom of religion, but outside analysts and defectors describe the country as militantly anti-religious. The distribution of Bibles and secret prayer services can mean imprisonment or execution, defectors have said.
"It is one of the last frontiers to spread the Christian faith, so there are people who would take unimaginable risks" to evangelise there," Mr Delury said.
A Bible in his hand, American missionary Robert Park walked into North Korea on Christmas Day 2009 to draw attention to human rights abuses and to call for the resignation of then-leader Kim Jong Il. Mr Park, who was deported from the country in February 2010, has said he was tortured by interrogators.
In 2010, ex-President Jimmy Carter visited North Korea to win the release of imprisoned American Aijalon Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labour for crossing illegally into the North from China.
It was unclear what led Mr Gomes, who had been teaching English in South Korea, to cross. But he may have been emulating Mr Park, said Jo Sung-rae, a South Korean human rights advocate who met Mr Gomes. Mr Gomes attended rallies in Seoul calling for Mr Park's release before he was arrested.
Mr Park later said he didn't want others to repeat his actions. "I don't want others to do this. I just hoped that this could galvanise people to action. Because this is a society that needs change now," he told The Washington Post in February 2011.
For North Korea, getting a senior US official or an ex-president to visit is a huge propaganda coup. It allows Pyongyang to plaster its newspapers and TV screens with scenes meant to show its powerful leaders welcoming humbled American dignitaries, said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in South Korea.
Washington has repeatedly offered to send its envoy for North Korean human rights to discuss the currently detained Americans, but Pyongyang has so far balked.
"The North Koreans are in no hurry," Mr Lankov said. "It's a sellers' market. They say, `This is our price: a senior visit and some concessions. These are our goods, these Americans. If you don't want to pay, that's your problem. We can wait.'"
A boat from Dalian, with six crew on board, was seized by North Koreans on September 12. Photo: Screenshot via Sohu
North Korea detained a Chinese fishing boat and demanded a fine for its release, it was reported yesterday, apparently the first such move in more than a year, risking further strains on ties between Pyongyang and its only major ally.
A boat from Dalian, with six crew on board, was seized by North Koreans on September 12 while fishing in the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean peninsula, the government-run Beijing News reported.
The owner of the boat told the newspaper that he received a phone call, apparently from the North Korean coastguard, two days later and was told that his boat and crew had been detained for fishing in North Korean waters.
Photo: The Beijing News
The North Koreans demanded a fine of 250,000 yuan (HK$315, 000) for releasing the boat and its crew, but on September 17 the six crew returned to their fishing village with wounds on their bodies from being beaten, the newspaper said. It was reported that their wallets and belts had been stolen.
"The crew insist that their boat did not enter North Korean waters, not to mention crossing the line for fishing," Zhang Xikai, the fishing boat owner, was quoted as saying.
"They were conducting normal operations within Chinese waters when they were hijacked by North Korean personnel with guns and dragged into North Korean waters by force."
In Beijing, the foreign ministry confirmed it was aware of the boat's seizure and the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang made representations to the North Korean government, the newspaper said.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday she had not yet seen the report and would make checks.
North Korea in May detained a Chinese vessel with 16 crew demanding 600,000 yuan, but eventually released them without payment after Beijing intervened.
In 2012, three Chinese fishing boats were seized by North Koreans who asked for 1.2 million yuan.
They were freed later but it was unclear whether any payment had been made.
Beijing is a major supplier of food aid and oil to Pyongyang.
However, tension has mounted between the two countries, with North Korea increasingly isolated by UN sanctions over its nuclear ambitions and rocket launches.
Matthew Miller is one of three Americans detained in North Korea. Photo: AP
An American man recently sentenced by North Korea to six years of hard labour says he is digging in fields eight hours a day and being kept in isolation, but that so far his health hasn't deteriorated.
Under close guard and with only enough time to respond to one question, 24-year-old Matthew Miller spoke briefly to a journalist at a Pyongyang hotel, where he had been brought to make a phone call to his family. It was his first appearance since he was convicted on September 14 of entering the country illegally to commit espionage.
"Prison life is eight hours of work per day. Mostly it's been agriculture, like in the dirt, digging around," Miller said when asked what conditions were like in prison.
"Other than that, it's isolation, no contact with anyone. But I have been in good health, and no sickness or no hurts," he said, showing little emotion.
Wearing a grey prison uniform and cap, Miller was filmed sitting down at a phone booth at the hotel and pressing the buttons on a phone while a North Korean guard stood behind him. Photo: AP
Wearing a prison-style grey uniform and cap, Miller was filmed sitting down at a phone booth at the hotel and pressing the buttons on a phone while a North Korean guard stood behind him. Officials said Miller spoke to his father, but the journalist was not allowed to hear the conversation. Miller does not have routine access to phone calls home.
The Bakersfield, California, native showed several letters he had written seeking help from influential Americans, including first lady Michelle Obama, US Secretary of State John Kerry and former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Miller then enclosed them in a letter he sent to his family from the hotel.
At Miller's 90-minute trial, North Korea's Supreme Court said he tore up his tourist visa at Pyongyang's airport upon arrival on April 10 and admitted having the "wild ambition" of experiencing prison life so that he could secretly investigate North Korea's human rights situation.
Miller has written letters both to his family (right) and influential Americans such as Michelle Obama (left). Photos: AP, Reuters
Miller is one of three Americans detained in North Korea. Jeffrey Fowle, who was arrested in May for leaving a Bible at a sailor's club, is expected to be tried in court soon. Kenneth Bae was sentenced in 2013 to 15 years of hard labour.
Last week, Robert King, the US special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, said Pyongyang had not accepted American offers to send a high-level envoy to seek release of the three men. King said that freeing the detainees could provide a diplomatic opening in ties between the two countries, but that Washington would not give into attempts to "extort" political gain from the detentions.
King would not specify whom the Obama administration was willing to send. But Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said he was told by the administration that it had offered in recent weeks to send Glyn Davies, who leads US diplomacy on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, and that Pyongyang had not responded favourably.
In 2009, North Korea detained two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were freed after former US president Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang. In 2011, former president Jimmy Carter visited North Korea to win the release of imprisoned American Aijalon Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labour for crossing illegally into the North from China.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supposedly missed a key parliament meeting. Photo: Xinhua
Young North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is suffering from “discomfort”, state media has said in the first official acknowledgement of ill health after a prolonged period out of the public eye.
Kim, 31, who is frequently the centrepiece of the isolated country’s propaganda, has not been photographed by state media since appearing at a concert alongside his wife on September 3.
The absence fuelled speculation he is suffering from bad health.
He had been seen walking with a limp since an event with key officials in July and in a pre-recorded documentary broadcast by state media on Thursday appeared to have difficulty walking.
“The wealth and prosperity of our socialism is thanks to the painstaking efforts of our marshal, who keeps lighting the path for the people, like the flicker of a flame, despite suffering discomfort,” a voice-over for the hour-long documentary said.
The documentary was followed by a pre-recorded broadcast of a North Korean Supreme People's Assembly meeting from which Kim Jong-un was notably absent.
Kim has rapidly gained weight since coming to power after his father died of a heart attack in 2011, photos released by state media show.
North Korea observers speculate Kim's weight and family background may have contributed to his condition.
“Based on his gait, it appears he has gout -- something [due to] diet and genetic predisposition that has affected other members of the Kim family,” said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership and contributor to the 38 North website.
The North Korean parliament in session minus Kim. Photo: Xinhua
Only part of the rubber-stamp parliament's meeting was shown on television. If Kim had indeed missed the meeting, it would be for the first time since he took power after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December 2011, according to an official for South Korea's Unification Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of office rules.
The assembly normally meets once a year in April to rubber-stamp budgetary and personnel matters decided by the ruling party.
When the official Korea Central News Agency announced the date for this year's second session, it did not say what would be discussed by the nearly 700 people attending or how long the session would last.
North Korean media said yesterday that the assembly had approved the promotion of an official seen as a rising confidant of Kim's, Hwang Pyong-so, as the vice-chairman of the country's powerful National Defence Commission.
At the April session, Kim was re-elected as the commission's head. The last time the assembly met twice in one year was in 2012. In practice it has little power.
Undated photo released on August 31, 2014 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visiting the renewed October 8 factory (AFP Photo/)
Seoul (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who has not been seen for nearly a month due to apparent health problems, sent a congratulatory message to China on its national day Wednesday, state media said.
Kim was last seen in public on September 3. A rare admission from North Korea that he was suffering "discomfort" has triggered frenzied speculation about his health and close scrutiny of any mention of the young leader in state media.
The three-paragraph message sent to Chinese President Xi Jinping marked the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Kim voiced his hopes for China's future prosperity and the happiness of the Chinese people, KCNA said.
Kim took over the reins of power in North Korea following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in December 2011.
He sent similar national day messages to the Chinese head of state in 2012 and 2013.
Recent state TV footage of Kim had shown him looking overweight and walking with a pronounced limp, which some analysts took to be a symptom of chronic gout.
Rumours about his health multiplied after Kim failed to attend a meeting of the North's rubber-stamp parliament last week.
Jeffrey Fowle was detained after apparently leaving a Bible in the toilet of a nightclub in the northern port of Chongjin.
One of three Americans detained in North Korea has made a fresh plea for his government's help ahead of a trial that is likely to end with a lengthy prison term and hard labour.
In an interview yesterday in the pro-North Korean Japanese newspaper Chosun Sinbo, Jeffrey Fowle said he feared he would share the fate of fellow detainees, Kenneth Bae, 42, and Matthew Miller, 24, who were sentenced to 15 years' hard labour and six years' hard labour respectively.
Fowle, 56, entered North Korea in April and was detained after apparently leaving a Bible in the toilet of a nightclub in the northern port of Chongjin. The authorities have said Fowle will be tried for "perpetrating hostile acts" but no date has yet been set.
"I feel so anxious that I will be punished for my offence once the trial opens … As an American citizen, I am left with no choice but to plea for help from the US government," he said.
North Korea announced in April last year that it would revive its aged five-megawatt research reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex. Photo: Reuters
North Korea may have shut down a recently restarted reactor which can yield plutonium for bombs, possibly for renovation or partial refuelling, a US security institute said, citing new satellite imagery.
North Korea announced in April last year that it would revive its aged five-megawatt research reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, saying it was seeking a deterrent capacity.
The isolated East Asian state, which quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty two decades ago, defends its nuclear arms programme as a “treasured sword” to counter what it sees as US-led hostility.
On Thursday, So Se-pyong, North Korea’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said that Pyongyang was ready to resume the so-called six-party talks and was not planning a nuclear or missile test.
The United States responded that Pyongyang must first take meaningful steps toward denuclearisation and refrain from provocative acts.
Early last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in an annual report on North Korea that it had seen via satellite imagery releases of steam and water indicating that the Yongbyon reactor may be operating.
In line with this view, the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said commercially available satellite imagery from September last year until June this year had shown it was operating.
“This assessment was based on the presence of either steam venting from the reactor’s turbine building or water being discharged into the river through a pipeline buried east of the reactor,” the think tank said.
However, in imagery from late August and late September “both these signatures are missing,” it said on its website. “For this reason, ISIS assesses that it is possible that the reactor is partially or completely shut down.”
North Korea may be carrying out a partial refuelling of the reactor’s core or it may have shut it down for maintenance or renovation purposes, it said.
“The question of refuelling requires closer scrutiny, because the plutonium would be expected, after separation ... to be assigned to nuclear weapons,” it said.
The Yongbyon reactor had been technically out of operation for years. North Korea destroyed its cooling tower in 2008 as a confidence-building step in negotiations with South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.
When North Korea said it planned to revive it, experts said it would probably take about half a year to get it up and running, if it had not suffered significant damage from neglect.
South Korea insists Pyongyang denuclearise for the two sides to come closer together, but few believe the North will ever surrender the ultimate weapon because it provides security for both the country and the government itself.
On Saturday, North Korea sent its highest level delegation to South Korea to attend the Asian Games closing ceremony amid a flurry of diplomatic activity which has raised hopes for improved ties between the arch rivals.
Agence France-Presse and Associated Press in Seoul
North Korean soldiers are seen on a boat on the banks of the Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite to the Chinese border city of Dandong. Photo: reuters
North and South Korean naval patrol boats briefly exchanged fire on Tuesday morning near their disputed Yellow Sea border which has been the site of numerous clashes in the past, the South Korean defence ministry said.
The incident coincided with raised hopes of a constructive reboot in strained inter-Korean relations following the surprise visit of a top-ranking North Korean delegation to the South just three days before.
The South Korean defence ministry said the North Korean vessel had penetrated half a nautical mile into the South’s territorial waters.
“Our side fired back when the North Korean patrol boat opened fire,” a ministry spokesman said, adding there was “no damage” sustained on the South Korean side.
The Associated Press quoted an unnamed South Korean defence official as saying that South Korean shots were fired into waters and there were no reports of casualties or damage to the ships of either side.
The incident took place around 9:50 am (0050 GMT) near the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong, the spokesman said, adding that the North patrol boat retreated to its side of the border 10 minutes later.
The maritime boundary, which was unilaterally drawn by the US-led United Nations forces after the 1950-53 Korean War, was the scene of brief but bloody naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009.
The Korean conflict ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty, and technically the two Koreas are still at war.
Hwang Pyong-so (centre), flanked by bodyguards, arrives at Incheon International Airport in South Korea for a rare visit. Photo: EPA
If North Korean leader Kim Jong-un isn't sick, he must be dead - at least politically.
That's the thinking behind a rash of rumours that the portly 31-year-old scion of the country's founding communists has been toppled from power.
Kim has not been seen in public for more than a month, and his absence from the September 25 gathering of the rubber-stamp parliament fuelled Korea watchers' speculation that he has been deposed by a palace coup.
Then a high-level delegation of Pyongyang officials made a surprise visit to the South Korean city of Incheon on Saturday, ostensibly to catch the closing ceremonies of the Asian Games. The top-ranking visitor, purported No2 Hwang Pyong-so, conveyed Kim's "heartfelt greeting" to the South Korean officials with whom he met. That only served to ramp up media and academic speculation over why Pyongyang was making such a conciliatory gesture at this time.
South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae took advantage of the rare opportunity for firsthand information from the North in asking after the health of Kim after a North Korean television report last week that alluded to the leader being in "discomfort".
"There is nothing wrong with the health of Secretary Kim," Ryoo's counterpart from Pyongyang, Workers' Party secretary for Korean affairs Kim Yang-gon, told his host.
So what is the reason?
South Korean media have reported that Kim suffers from gout, which might explain why he appeared to be limping the last time he was spotted in public on September 3.
New Focus International, a two-year-old self-funded news site that claims to offer authentic North Korean content and analysis, has woven developments since last year's execution of Kim's uncle and then second in command, Jang Song-taek, into a narrative that has the young leader sidelined in a figurehead role. Hwang, who has accumulated new military and political powers in recent months, has usurped Kim's authority and is calling the shots from within a once-obscure department of the ruling Workers' Party, the theory goes.
"The big rumour now is that the Organisation and Guidance Department has taken over," said Jeffrey Lewis, a defence and security scholar at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
The department that was built up during the 1994-2011 reign of Kim's father, Kim Jong-il, as a kind of internal security apparatus, had taken on a life of its own, the New Focus website reported, claiming that Kim had become a mere "figurehead" as leader.
Lewis calls the speculation on an internal coup "an awfully strong extrapolation of very small things", including reports of a travel ban on Pyongyang residents and the presence of bodyguards with Hwang during his Incheon visit. (Only the supreme leader was entitled to protection, New Focus International reported, casting Hwang's behaviour with the South Koreans as a "fundamental violation of North Korea's power principle".)
"I think they are plausible rumours, at least worth paying attention to, and it's interesting that he's been out of view that long," Lewis said of the speculation on Kim's physical and political condition. "There are some things out of place. Something weird is going on. But they do weird things all the time that shock us."
As with most reports circumnavigating their way out of North Korea, "sometimes the right answer in life is 'I don't know,'" Lewis said of Kim's situation.
